Arkansas Blog

Duh -- U.S. attorneygate

Somewhat breathlessly, the NY Times reports that the White House and the man the president calls turdblossom, Karl Rove, were deeply involved in the U.S. attorney coup that put Rove hatchetman Tim Griffin into the U.S. attorney's office in Little Rock.

Duh.

Of course this was a political maneuver (the news today being smoking White House e-mails that prove it conclusively). It stemmed in part from Rove's desire to go aggressively after vote "fraud." You may be sure he didn't mean vigorous examination of badly flawed counts in Republican Benton County. He meant anything to suppress and discourage voting in heavily Democratic areas, particularly places with lots of black voters. Griffin, who has experience in such work, was a natural for this job. Watch him go.

PS -- Griffin objects to a reference here recently about his failure to return Ark. Times phone calls. He has indeed returned one recently. The reference is to his refusal to do an interview on his appointment as U.S. attorney and, to date, he has given no interviews in which he discusses the specifics of how his name turned up on what appears to have been a plot to discourage black voting in Florida. It was an effort that disenfranchised, among others, black members of the military serving overseas.

PPS -- The Washington Post account of the White House outing is richer still. It dumps White House abuse on Bud Cummins, ousted in Little Rock in favor of Rove's pet. And it notes about Rove's henchman in LR:

The e-mails show that Rove was interested in the appointment of a former aide, Tim Griffin, as an Arkansas prosecutor. Sampson wrote in one that "getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc."

Also, regarding Alberto "The Torturer" Gonzales' sworn testimony that he absolutely intended to put a nominee for U.S. attorney in Little Rock through the Senate confirmation process:

The documents also provide new details about the case of Griffin, a former Republican National Committee researcher who was named interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock in December.

E-mails show that Justice officials discussed bypassing the two Democratic senators in Arkansas, who normally would have had input into the appointment, as early as last August. By mid-December, Sampson was suggesting that Gonzales exercise his newfound appointment authority to put Griffin in place until the end of Bush's term.

"[I]f we don't ever exercise it then what's the point of having it?" Sampson wrote to a White House aide. "I'm not 100 percent sure Tim was the guy to test drive this authority, but know that getting him appointed was important to Harriet Miers, Karl, etc."

This form needs Javascript to display, which your browser doesn't support. Sign up here instead